"America has two great dominant strands of political thought - conservatism,
which, at its very best, draws lines that should not be crossed;
and progressivism, which, at its very best, breaks down barriers that
should never have been erected."
-- Bill Clinton, Dedication of the Clinton Presidential Library, November 2004

Ellis Henican of Newsday writes a nice column lauding Dean's nuanced position on the upcoming military action in Iraq. He quotes family members, moms and dads, who have kids in the Persian Gulf.

An excerpt:

Support the troops, oppose the war: For Charley Richardson, that's where real patriotism lies, as he and his son wait for their president's call.

"Why do people have such a hard time with this concept?" this one Marine father asked. "If I saw my son getting into a car with a drunk driver, I would lay down in the middle of the street to keep that car from moving. I would do anything I could. "For me to stand on the side of the road and salute would be ridiculous." Opposition to this war is deep and wide.

Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor now lighting up the Democratic presidential race, vowed to stay on the case.

"I went to Parris Island so I could look into the faces of the kids who will be sent to Iraq," Dean told a cheering lunchtime crowd in Concord, N.H. "We should always support our kids, but I do not support this president's policies and I will continue to say so."

It's telling that there are military families with kids in the Persian Gulf who remain opposed to this action, and who can understand the need - indeed, they feel compelled - to speak out.

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About Nation-Building

Nation-Building was founded by Aziz Poonawalla in August 2002 under the name Dean Nation. Dean Nation was the very
first weblog devoted to a presidential candidate, Howard Dean, and became the vanguard of the Dean netroot phenomenon, raising
over $40,000 for the Dean campaign, pioneering the use of Meetup, and enjoying the attention of the campaign itself, with Joe Trippi
a regular reader (and sometime commentor). Howard Dean himself even left a comment once. Dean Nation was a group weblog effort and counts
among its alumni many of the progressive blogsphere's leading talent including Jerome Armstrong, Matthew Yglesias, and Ezra Klein. After
the election in 2004, the blog refocused onto the theme of "purple politics",
formally changing its name to Nation-Building in June 2006.
The primary focus of the blog is on articulating
purple-state policy at home and
pragmatic liberal interventionism abroad.